Students get back to ‘business’ with second-chance high school

Excerpted from the Tacoma Weekly
Clare Jensen

While Tacoma’s smallest high school is still in its infancy, it is starting to have a big impact on its students.

Tacoma Business Academy (TBA)–a partnership of Communities In Schools of Tacoma, Tacoma Public Schools, and Bates Technical College–serves as a last-ditch alternative to students looking for a second chance. It is open to about 45 students, ranging in age from 16 to 21, who all have one thing in common: they’re high school dropouts.

Student Thomas Hart is grateful for the opportunity to get back in school after slipping up at age 16. Now, Hart is 19 and has been out of school for three years. He recently moved to Pierce County and jumped at the chance to get back into an actual high school program, rather than attempt to make a career out of a minimum-wage job.

“A high school diploma shows that you accomplished something, and you didn’t give up on it,” he said. “It’s a bad choice, dropping out. I’ve been down that road. Getting back to school has just changed me completely.”

TBA opened in September 2008 after local education organizations saw the need to help students re-focus after making bad decisions in high school. The school serves as a starting point for young adults, many low income and many with low self esteem, to re-engage in learning and moving ahead in their future as productive adults.

“There is a huge need for a program for students who are no longer attending,” TBA Principal John Page said. “If they weren’t there, where would they be?”

For more information on the Tacoma Business Academy or how to volunteer as a mentor to Academy students, visit Communities in Schools of Tacoma’s website here.

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